


The Bus's Unexpected Stoppers

by CatChan



Series: I love the 1796 Verse! [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fury's a dick, Gen, Humor, Nat and clint don't take shit, Natasha is scary, Phil is too soft, Spies get along, Team-up, Top Gun references, asking for help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 15:14:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1352074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatChan/pseuds/CatChan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you haven't read  <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/972937">1796 Broadway</a> yet, I advise you to go NOW before even stepping further into this, this contains Spoilers on chapter 303 (you have been warned). (I GUESS it could be read as a stand-alone, but it'll still spoil 1796 Broadway if you read this fic before reading the original work.)</p><p>Phil watches as the helicopter lands in front of his bus. He didn't really think he was that well hidden, but he still wasn't expecting those visitors.</p><p>It would be a pleasure to meet them again after such a long time, if they were under normal circumstances... He should have guessed the circumstances had to be abnormal for them to run to him in that fashion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bus's Unexpected Stoppers

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [1796 Broadway](https://archiveofourown.org/works/972937) by [rainproof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainproof/pseuds/rainproof), [teaberryblue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaberryblue/pseuds/teaberryblue). 
  * Inspired by [Jekyll And Charlotte](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1288582) by [teaberryblue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teaberryblue/pseuds/teaberryblue). 



> I am playing around with possibilities. And I love to tie different stories together, so here comes an alternative possibility to whatever happens in 1796 Broadway after chapter 303

Coulson stared at the helicopter that was landing twenty meters from the Bus's tail.

“So? Why didn't we shoot this out of the sky? Nobody is supposed to know where we are.” Phil didn't even bother turning around to face agent Ward.

“Ever watched the film 'my name is Nobody'? Turns out a lot of people can qualify this way nowadays.” Phil cast a glance sideways, to see Ward furrowing his brows. He also saw Melinda and Skye climbing down the stairs, and even though Fitz and Simmons were too busy now to join them, they would probably do it as soon as they realize everyone is looking in the same direction. Was this a good or bad thing? He didn't know, really, but he was pretty sure he'd be thrown off pace in a matter of seconds.

“Okay, so the secrecy of our position is relative... Doesn't answer why you prevented Melinda to just shoot them, I tend to think nobodies are better dealt with while they are not able to fight back... What did this 'We're on the Highway To The Danger Zone' mean? Does a music title really mean this much?” Phil waited a couple of second to answer, until a man jumped down from the helicopter. And, yup, that was a bow.

“I assume you did watch Top Gun. So here is the man I used to call Maverick roughly after every mission I led him through. It was just useless to chew him out each and every time, he didn't learn anyway. That's why I called him that, a way to say he did some thing stupid, again, and that I was angry at him, but still relieved to have him back in one piece.” He saw Ward tilt his head to the side, a sign he was thinking the info out.

“So you'd have extended that... leniency to anyone citing Take My Breath Away or The Final Countdown?” He didn't seem sure of what he thought of it.

“First off, no, I did because I recognized the voice. Her voice.” He pointed to the blond woman in a catsuit that was hopping down too. So she was blond now? He had been sure she hated that color. “And Take My Breath Away is the song they used to hint me that they were in a relationship, it wouldn't make any sense in this situation. The Final Countdown, on the other hand, is a preemptive apology. Something like 'sorry, but we might not be able to make it back from that one'.” Melinda and Skye stopped besides him, he wasn't all that surprised when it was Melinda that talked next, but a little shocked to see a third person exiting the helicopter. Those two weren't normally the type to bring people along, and especially not a civilian. And that person was blatantly not trained in military arts.

“And what does Highway To The Danger Zone mean?” Phil smiled, he couldn't help it.

“This one is a joke. 'Gotta love this new mission! Lots of shinny equipments and fast transports, wanna bet who'll be the first one on site?' ” Skye huffed a laugh, Melinda smiled faintly, Ward grinned and nodded, probably identifying to that, the lab's door opened and a pair of footsteps rang out, the trio reached the Bus' door.

“Hey Phil! Such a relief to see you alive and well!” Clint bounced up to him and jumped in a hug, he wasn't that expressive, usually.

Natasha stopped a few meters away and simply smiled, which was an unusual sight, already. “Likewise” was all she said, but it was already plenty. His heart squeezed upon seeing his two best agents. This was what he had to abandon in his death. Clint finally released him with one final clap. Phil felt his curiosity spike, because he had finally put a name on the third person's face. Bruce Banner, he should have recognized him instantly, but he wasn't expecting it at all, last he knew, him and Natasha couldn't even talk to each-other, why would she come with him?

Fitz and Simmons reached them, and he felt it was his time to talk. “So? What do I owe this pleasure?”

“We felt like annoying Fury a teeny tiny bit.” Clint flashed him his teeth. “Someone told me you wanted to get his attention?”

Natasha nodded. “It just so happen that running away from SHIELD is stupidly dangerous, so we decided to go for a warning shot instead. This time we just went to meet Coulson, that you lied about, by the way, it is a pretty bad thing to do, but we do have the will and strength to just tell SHIELD to fuck off if you try something like that ever again.”

“Now, do you really?” Melinda said, just as Skye asked “and what exactly did he try?”

Natasha flashed them her Widow smile, pretty different from the 'happy you're still alive' one she wore just a bit earlier. “We have Stark backing us up, Steve covering for us and explaining Fury no one has the right to come between him and his team and reminding Fury that he was a wild card back in the day and if he have to deflect from SHIELD to ensure our security, he will. And Thor is apparently passive-aggressively polishing his hammer in the heliporter's control deck while booming stories of what he did for his shield brothers along the ages, since well before we all were born. So yeah, I believe we have the firepower to just give Fury the finger, we just don't think we need to go to this extent just yet.”

Clint smiled gleefully, a little too happy to be true, especially considering the situation Natasha was describing, and the threat that must have induced it. “You forgot the media power we have on our side, pretty sure the backlash would be significant if we said we were going independent because SHIELD tried to fuck us over. As for your question, lady, Fury tried to use me as a weapon against Tasha, and this is something neither of us appreciate. Toying with our feelings is off limit, and he better understand this quickly, or we'll blow in his face, we just so happen to be skillful at blowing up.”

Phil felt his anger flare. Using Clint to get to Natasha was what Loki had done. But Loki had been poking in blindly, throwing pikes where he thought it'd hurt, but missing his marks because the sheer fact that there was no mark where he was looking. Fury knew, he knew their relationship and love, even if it was more sibling love than lover's love, and he was using this to hurt them both, and this was unforgivable. Especially considering it had been Phil himself who had let Fury know about it, as an effort to try and shelter them from anything that could come between them.

Phil had told Fury his two best assets were very important to each other and that he should at all cost avoid losing either, for the other could lose his mind to the pain, and Fury was using it for his petty manipulation, using it to force his Natasha into something, no matter what it was, that she didn't want.

He waved the trio in, and led them up the stairs and to one of the table. His whole team settled in the room with him. Guess that was a given, if he wanted a bit of intimacy with them, he would have to wait. “So? What is it the Director is trying to force on you?”

Natasha, pinched her lips, glanced sideways towards the doctor Banner, and only started to talk when he flashed her a strained smile and shrugged. “He wanted me to break up with my boyfriend because it is dangerous for us to be emotionally attached to each-other, which I don't deny, we had a proof not so long ago, but on a side note, I am pretty sure us breaking up while still loving each-other won't change the situation at all. I refused to obey, and he threatened to pull me from the team. When I let him know the whole team had my back and he would have an uprising if he tried to pull me out against my will, he switched target and threatened to pull Clint out and put him in the worse spot he could find if I didn't comply, which is despicable, and wrong. I really don't want to dump him anyways, but now that he threw in that threat, I'll also stand my ground as a simple matter of principle. Even if it had just been a petty little matter like getting Stark to assist a debrief, the moment he threatened to attack Clint, there was no way I'd agree because that would be setting a dangerous precedent, both on his side and on mine, and Clint would still hang over my head each and every step I'd take along the road, We have to let him know that what he just poked at was off-limit.”

Phil was absolutely understanding and supporting Natasha's point, she couldn't back down, and he understood her move to the bus, a way to hint of a possible total deflection without getting all the way there yet, and to let everyone know that there was even more than the Avengers to consider when poking at the Barton-Romanov duo. But even though all of that registered, he was still hanging on a single point here. “Your boyfriend?” Banner raised his hand shyly and that explained the sideways glance, but hell if he'd ever have expected that, though now that he was witnessing it, it kind of made sense. What with the brilliant intellect and strong heart...

“So? Will you let us hitch a ride and force Fury to renegotiate?” Phil turned to Clint, his brilliant marksman, his trusted ally in all situations before everything... changed, and he saw the weigh hanging of his shoulder, and the strain the others lugged too. He almost capitulated, but then, his eyes skimmed over his team, his plane, and he couldn't just endanger his new family, even for them.

“Just so we're clear, you're asking me to take a decision that could easily be defined as treason and might land more than just me in a correctional custody?”

Clint visibly deflated, but Nat, strong, resourceful Natasha, smiled sweetly in one of her not quite scary compared to the best she could do but still pretty unnerving ways. “I wouldn't call that treason, because if you don't accept to help us, them we will truly run away and detach ourselves from the SHIELD, as I see it, you're doing Fury a favor by helping us send a threat instead of just jumping straight into rebellion.”

She had a point, but Phil was still uneasy with the deal, he really didn't want to put his team trough the risk of helping them. Of course, what they had done for Skye had the potential to put them in a worse situation, but she had been dying...

Seeing he wasn't backing down, Natasha turned and faced Clint. Phil was a bit unnerved to hear her say “damn! Well, switch to plan B”, because the Black Widow's plan B tended to be just a bit violent. He sensed Melinda and Ward tense, but the assassin duo just folded their hands together and leaned toward him, pulling big watery eyes out of nowhere and doing an excellent impersonation of five years old children asking for candy.

“Pleeeeease!” They pleaded in stereo.

Clint sticked his bottom lip out and raised his eyebrows a bit. “In account of everything we went through together?”

Phil recoiled from the surprise and sudden fear, they couldn't do that to him, could they? This was way too low! But Natasha was already following up. “I thought we had something here? Don't you remember Vegas?”

“South Africa?” Clint added, and yes, he remembered, bright images jumping up at their words to illustrate strong moments in their shared lives.

“New Jersey?” Natasha added, not missing a beat, and yep, they had definitely rehearsed that.

“Vancouver?” Phil's team was starting to exchange strange looks, and he didn't know if it was because they were getting the references, or just because he was showing his weakened will in his body language.

“Siberia?”

“New Dali?”

“Budapest?” And this was like a punch in his gut, but he forced himself to stand strong, this had to be the last one, it was so meaningful.

He shouldn't have underestimated Natasha like that. She was broken to interrogation techniques, and she had left the worse for the end.

And as such, it was Clint who said the next event. “Pegasus.” And ouch, that hurt, a lot. He almost felt proud of Clint to turn such a scar into a weapon, but Loki's control wasn't laughing matter.

“New Y--” Phil didn't let Natasha finish that one, but he didn't let his hand on her mouth for too long either, he wasn't all that found of getting bitten, and he knew Natasha had sharp teeth and wasn't afraid of using them.

He had lost, he knew it already, he wouldn't really have the heart to refuse them. A part of him wondered what good it did him not to have children because he'd tend to spoil them if it was to be so soft on his agents instead. “Fine! You can stay a couple of weeks with us if you believe it is necessary to prove your point.” He raised his hand before Clint could do anything that resembled a victory celebration. “If no one in the team is adverse to it and you all promise to behave!”

Clint gave him one of his brightest smiles and raised a hand in a scout salute. “I promise to behave, not bug your bus up and avoid creeping up on the civies soundlessly from behind.”

Natasha set both her hands on the table in business-like manner “similarly.”

Banner gave a twisted smile. “I promise I will do my best to avoid Hulking out inside your plane, though my best efforts seem to be insufficient when Tasha's in danger.”

Phil sighed. “I guess I'll have to do with that... Oh, and, Barton! If I find out the vents got used for anything other than aeration, I'll throw you out the airlock myself. Are we clear?”

Clint grouched and grumbled and unintelligible acknowledgment to the threat.

“Well, now you can try to convince the team to take you on board, don't believe the same tactic will work on them.”

Phil leaned back in his seat, by the look Simmons and Fitz were throwing the couple of spies, this was at least going to be interesting.

“We are not civies.” Fitz hissed at Clint. “We are trained SHIELD agents too, are you looking down on us scientists?”

“Oh! Very far from it, you know we have Stark and Dr Banner here in our team, and they are incredible assets to us.”

Simmons almost jumped across the table in excitement. “Dr Banner, really? Your works set incredible basis for everything I constantly work with. The researches on Gamma-radiation and anti-electrons were fascinating, I also found lots of application for your finds of the last year, it is such a loss for the scientific community that you disappeared for a good ten year, we would be so much more advanced if you'd continued on with your unfinished works, I am pretty sure those would have been concluded twice as fast with you...”

Well, okay, Simmons was a no-go, she would be thrilled to work with such a genius as Bruce and not care about the consequences one bit. There was still Fitz though. He stared Clint down disbelievingly. “Really, huh, not looking down on engineers?”

Clint looked genuinely shocked and curious, that was why he was so good, damn. “You're an engineer? Cool! Engineers are like magicians. Seriously, you've never worked with Stark, have you? In six months after we moved in into the Tower, he revamped our whole arsenal. Wanna see?”

Phil gave up on Fitz too, if they were willing to feed him Stark gadgets, he would have a field day examining each and every one of those. He turned away from Clint, now explaining how Stark made the fletching of his arrows retractable so he could stack more in his quiver, and that he was currently lobbying for telescopic shafts on top of it, but Tony was refusing to hand him anything but perfectly balanced arrows and he was working on a way to make top-notch projectiles for him.

“All that to stay with your boyfriend? Don't you think it is a bit too much?” Count on Melinda to remain clear-headed.

“You know, I never called anyone my boyfriend before. Even Barton, who is one of the most precious people I have, didn't get that qualification. It was, 'I'm sleeping with my partner' and when we stopped, I continued considering him very precious, but it was still a work relationship, and friendship. We separated because we figured while the sex was great and we really liked each-other, we liked a good mission, a night watching TV, and simply cuddling, but there was no sexual tension between us. Of course we still could, I mean he is handsome, and I could still imagine sleeping with him alright, but it wasn't anything special, it was less special than the rest of our relationship.”

Melinda and Ward nodded, and Natasha went on. “With Bruce, it's different. I feel like the room gets larger every time I stand by his side. I used to say love was for children, but tomorrow doesn't sound as uncertain anymore now that I have him. I... I am greedy, and I want to keep that for myself, no matter the cost. I finally found something that makes me want to fight with everything I have, not because this is the only choice I have, but because it is the only one I care to make.” The two agents approved her words, wearing a serious expression that matched Nat's.

… Okay. It probably was a good thing? His favorites agents from before were getting along alright with his new family. A bit of support would have been great, though.

He turned to Skye, and she just shrugged, answering to him, but knowing everyone would hear her. “You know where I come from, right? I always believed we shouldn't leave higher ups hide things from us and make decisions in our stead. What they are experiencing is unforgivable, and I don't need any further prompting to accept to give them any help they might need, no matter the cost. And, they're your family too, aren't they? You like them, so I feel like I already know them a bit. They aren't strangers, they're my brand new cousins.”

Phil stared at her. He knew why he loved his team. “Okay! Seems there is no opposition to your stay, so have someone give you a tour of the bus and be there in an hour, we have a battle plan against the Clairvoyant to think up.”

Everyone dispersed, and he idly observed Clint explaining to Melinda, Ward and Fitz how Tony made him a laser edged collapsible sword when he told him he could hold his own in swordsmanship, but didn't want to burden himself with a voluminous blade.

Melinda snatched the handle from him and observed it while explaining the bus rules.

Well, his fight already looked brighter with such strong allies, and trusted friends standing by him.


End file.
